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National Non-Fiction November

November is National Non-Fiction month, the Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ annual celebration of all things factual. And there’s much to celebrate. Children’s non-fiction books is a growing area, with ever more stylised, intriguing, general and niche titles being offered. This year, there’s extra good news. The FCBG and World Book Day have teamed together with non-fiction publishers to give away the 100 Books featured in their ‘100 Brilliant Non-Fiction Books for Children and Young People’ for schools and public organisations, or you can win 33 books as an individual. For full details of the giveaway, see here.

In the meantime, here are some extra quirky non-fiction picks for you that didn’t quite make their list, but ended up on my desk:

Pharaoh’s FateAn interactive adventure that explores and teaches about Ancient Egypt at the same time as the reader solves a murder mystery. Someone is plotting to murder Pharaoh and the reader has to work out who it is. Journeying through town centres, royal palaces, the gods and goddesses, a map of Egypt and much more – the sections are tabbed for easy reference. To solve the mystery the reader will also have to decipher hieroglyphs. This is a full-colour, beautifully packaged book, the definition of teaching through play.

Not only is the book great fun, but it looks appealing from the start. With gold foil on the cover, and a black mysterious background, the inside is filled with bright, colourful illustrations. Particular highlights are the map of Egypt, the Opet festival and the depictions of the Nile in simple yet bold captioned illustrations. And because it’s so beautifully presented, a child will revisit even after solving the mystery.

Historical facts are absorbed rather than read, as the reader puzzles to solve the mystery, this is a great introduction to Ancient Egypt and good fun. You can buy it here.

DK Encyclopedia of Very Important ThingsFact hungry little ones will delight in this book for 4-7 year olds that doesn’t patronise, but manages to convey information in a tone that is both chatty and informative. Split into six sections, including planet, places, animals, people, me and ‘other’, there is lots to satisfy curious minds. It’s fairly unclear why some pages are placed in ‘other’, such as animal babies, birds’ eggs and beetles, and not in the animals section, but little minds will delight in seeing the large graphics and the simple labelling however they choose to read the book – dipping in, or from start to end.

In typical Dorling Kindersley style, this is a mixture of graphics, illustrations and stock photography, all put to good use. So whereas a fiery volcano, ‘Lava is very very hot’, is shown with a wonderful photographic image of a volcano (sadly unlabelled so that it could be from anywhere), blood vessels are shown as a graphic, indicating the platelets, and blood cells within.

It’s an eclectic mix of topics, and includes some interesting choices, but it’s hard to encompass the whole world and all its history for any age group, let alone this young one. However, hopefully it incorporates enough of the basics – where countries are, dinosaurs, the five senses, colours and shapes, etc. to stimulate further curiosity.

There’s a lovely green ribbon to bookmark the reader’s place, so that this really is a book for dipping into and revisiting. Highlights include common flags, simple maps, and miraculous medicines. Find out more here.

Elliot’s Guide to Dinosaurs by Elliot SeahSo for those of us still waiting for a publishing deal, this may be rather galling, but on the other hand completely inspiring for children. This book, written by an eight-year old dinosaur enthusiast, is rather interesting. It is like a factfile, firstly in the introduction examining where dinosaurs came from, what they ate, and how they lived, and then examined dinosaur by dinosaur, in chronological sections. Each colour-coded section covers a different era: Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Each species is described by appearance and locomotion, as well as distinguishing features.

The text is rather dry, but for kids who like their facts clearly and simply presented this is an excellent resource, supported and fact-checked by an expert palaeontologist. Elliot introduces a cartoon dinosaur friend to lead the reader through the book, although this is not utilised nearly as much as it could have been.

The layout is appealing – crisp and sparing, with large amounts of white space, and short easy digestible text chunks. The identification chart bears a consistency that makes it easy to distinguish and compare the dinosaurs, and nice touches include a section on recent discoveries, as well as showing which museums have skeletons of which dinosaurs.

This book started as a school project and developed from there. The chapter divisions contain Elliot’s original artwork from the project, although the rest has been illustrated by graphic designers, and the book is highly professional in its finish – a regular published non-fiction book. It just goes to show what a school project can become if you work hard enough. Translated from the French. Please note this book goes on sale on November 15th. You can pre-order it here.

Cool Mythology by Malcolm CroftPart of the very popular cool series for children on a host of topics from art to science, this is a small book with hugely comprehensive contents. Covering world mythology from the North American myths to Hindu mythology, with everything in between.

The book starts at the very beginning with creation myths, and then embraces individual stories, mythological creatures, places, and of course the afterlife. While some stories will be somewhat familiar to today’s children, others will be completely new. But what’s really cool about the book is that it compares and contrasts them, asks why these myths are so pervasive in our modern culture, and what message they may contain. It’s an entertaining guide to how they infuse our modern morality and what lessons can be learned from the stories of history.

The language is not easy, because the book is designed as much for adults as for children but it’s not so complicated that it can’t be understood, and will certainly stimulate some hard thinking. The use of plentiful colour, diagrams, amusing illustrations, checklists and plays on words adds to the element of fun about the book as well as easing the information flow for younger readers.

There are some real gems contained within, particularly the deconstruction of the seven basic plots of myths, the beserkers of Norse mythology, and the gentle pulling apart of Gilgamesh and its teaching of what it means to be human. This is a brilliantly comprehensive look at myth, and a go-to guide for global myth making. Excellent. Buy it here.